BRM Reviews the 4/8/2013 Raw

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING SEGMENT- GREAT! You could tell Cena was just having tons of fun getting such a negative reaction from the crowd. The “heel turn” joke was outstanding... and there were two or three points during this promo where I thought he actually would start to turn on the fans, but it didn’t happen. Instead Cena made an open challenge which was answered by Mark Henry. Who came out and cut an awesome promo.
Then Booker T came out (did Vickie get fired while I wasn’t looking or something?) and makes Cena vs. Henry non-title.

DANIEL BRYAN (w/Kane) vs. BIG E. LANGSTON (w/AJ Lee & Dolph Ziggler)-
I’m not happy about Dragon losing after only taking two moves, but if the Dragon being thrown into Kane actually leads to a Team Hell No break-up this will have been an okay segment. If it doesn’t lead to anything, this is a DUD.

WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: The Miz(c) vs. Wade Barrett- 5.75/10
The announcers did an admirable job of trying to cover for the botch of the Reality Check. This was much better than their match last night… but I’m not really sure what the purpose of switching the belt was just to switch them back?

SHEAMUS, VICKIE & MADDOX BACKSTAGE- decent

RANDY ORTON & BOOKER T BACKSTAGE- good

ZEB COULTER PROMO- decent

Oh come on! Why are we going to a recap package now, when Swagger and Coulter are in the ring waiting for their opponents to come out?

HANDICAP MATCH: Zeb Coulter & Jack Swagger vs. Alberto Del Rio (w/Ricardo Rodriguez)- No rating. I didn’t think Swagger took quite enough damage to be tapping yet, but it served as a perfect set up for…

DOLPH ZIGGLER CASHES-IN MONEY IN THE BANK ON ALBERTO DEL RIO- AWESOME segment. They did a great job making you think that Del Rio might actually escape with the belt when he locked the cross armbreaker in. The crowd was ultra-hot for this. I thought they might start throwing trash in the ring if Ziggler didn’t win the belt.

TEAM HELL NO SAVES TAKER FROM THE SHIELD- got a great pop (especially from me, as those are my three all-time favorites in the ring on the same side), but I don’t think it will actually lead to anything.

DOLPH ZIGGLER PROMO- GREAT!

R-TRUTH, ZACK RYDER, & SANTINO MARELLA vs. 3 MAN BAND- it goit the crowd pleasers on the show, so that was nice

ORTON & SHEAMUS BACKSTAGE- GREAT!

BIG SHOW PROMO FROM THE WRESTLEMANIA POST-SHOW- great

VICKIE & BOOKER T DECIDE WHO WILL FACE BIG SHOW- The problem with this is that it doesn’t solve all of the problems. Both men want to fight the Big Show, but now only one of them will be able to. Wouldn’t a triple threat match be better, as it lets b oth guys face Big Show?

WINNER FACES THE BIG SHOW: Randy Orton vs. Sheamus-
AN OLÉ CHANT! F*CK YEAH! In fact, this whole match must be seen, purely for the crowd, who pretty much ignored the match and had fun with semi-random chants… until Big Show attacked both men, resulting in a chant of “THANK YOU BIG SHOW!” I fully expect this match to become part of the Wikipedia entry for dead heat.
The odd thing here is that these aren’t guys who are particularly unpopular among smarks.
I actually feel really bad for Orton and Sheamus here because the match wasn’t bad by any means. Live reports say that WWE got the fans back after this, though, by playing Austin’s music just to f*ck with the fans.

SHOW ATTACKS ORTON & SHEAMUS- good. I can’t wait for the Triple Threat match that this seems to be building to.

FANDANGO vs. KOFI KINGSTON- DUD!
People are actually chanting Fandango’s theme song!
The match goes for about a minute before Jericho attacks Fandango, completely destroying him. So all Fandango has done in the WWE is dance, get pissed when someone mispronounces his name, get his ass kicked by Jericho, get a lucky win at Wrestlemania because Jericho hurt himself, then get his ass kicked by Jericho again. How, exactly, does WWE think this guy will get over?

PAUL HEYMAN PROMO- great! Paul E is an awesome spin-doctor!

TONS OF FUNK & THE FUNKADACTYLS vs. TEAM RHODES SCHOLARS AND THE BELLA TWINS- 2/10
I am assuming this is a Mixed Tag match, right? So shouldn’t the babyfaces have been DQed when Naomi it Cody with a hurricanrana?
The Fandango theme song chant is still going!

IF HENRY WINS, HE GETS A WWE TITLE SHOT: Mark Henry vs. John Cena- DUD!
If they wanted to turn Ryback heel here, they should have put him over at Mania, then used him in Henry’s spot tonight… and just had him attack Cena after the match.
The Fandango theme song chant is still going! Props to Cena for playing to it.

Overall, a pretty good show, despite the DUDs, and it was made even more enjoyable by the outstandingly hot crowd.

[yourcrapsweak]

FANDANGO vs. KOFI KINGSTON- DUD!
People are actually chanting Fandango’s theme song!
The match goes for about a minute before Jericho attacks Fandango, completely destroying him. So all Fandango has done in the WWE is dance, get pissed when someone mispronounces his name, get his ass kicked by Jericho, get a lucky win at Wrestlemania because Jericho hurt himself, then get his ass kicked by Jericho again. How, exactly, does WWE think this guy will get over?

How can you give this a dud when the match went less than a minute, and wasn't even supposed to be a match in the first place? And another thing is, how can you say "How does WWE think this guy will get over?" NOBODY looks at the product with that logic. They don't say "well how many matches does he have to impressively win before I can like him?" His gimmick is INSANELY entertaining and he is obviously already extremely over. This is what I always hated about ROH, because Gabe always thought that way and it hurt the product (I don't watch it anymore so I can't comment on the product now). You're forgetting the entertainment part completely.

[Big Red Machine]

FANDANGO vs. KOFI KINGSTON- DUD!
People are actually chanting Fandango’s theme song!
The match goes for about a minute before Jericho attacks Fandango, completely destroying him. So all Fandango has done in the WWE is dance, get pissed when someone mispronounces his name, get his ass kicked by Jericho, get a lucky win at Wrestlemania because Jericho hurt himself, then get his ass kicked by Jericho again. How, exactly, does WWE think this guy will get over?

How can you give this a dud when the match went less than a minute, and wasn't even supposed to be a match in the first place? And another thing is, how can you say "How does WWE think this guy will get over?" NOBODY looks at the product with that logic. They don't say "well how many matches does he have to impressively win before I can like him?" His gimmick is INSANELY entertaining and he is obviously already extremely over. This is what I always hated about ROH, because Gabe always thought that way and it hurt the product (I don't watch it anymore so I can't comment on the product now). You're forgetting the entertainment part completely.

You're right about it not being fair to call the match a dud, but I think that the segment was a dud.
I don't find Fandango to be entertaining at all. If you mispronounce his name he storms off like a five year old and if you don't he dances. So what? If I wanted dancing, I wouldn't be watching wrestling.
I really don't think he is that over. This was a crazy crowd. We'll see next week.
I see what you're saying about him not needing to be a serious competitor, and I don't think I would be anywhere near as harsh on him if they hadn't put him in a match at Wrestlemania against Chris Jericho- especially at the expense of leaving guys like Claudio, Ryder, Evan Bourne, McIntyre, Kofi, Ron Killings, and Justin Gabriel who are all much more talented and mostly all much more over who would have done much better in this spot.

[badnewzxl]

WINNER FACES THE BIG SHOW: Randy Orton vs. Sheamus-
AN OLÉ CHANT! F*CK YEAH! In fact, this whole match must be seen, purely for the crowd, who pretty much ignored the match and had fun with semi-random chants… until Big Show attacked both men, resulting in a chant of “THANK YOU BIG SHOW!” I fully expect this match to become part of the Wikipedia entry for dead heat.
The odd thing here is that these aren’t guys who are particularly unpopular among smarks.
I actually feel really bad for Orton and Sheamus here because the match wasn’t bad by any means. Live reports say that WWE got the fans back after this, though, by playing Austin’s music just to f*ck with the fans.

HOW LONG HAVE I BEEN GONE?! IS THE GUY WHO USUALLY SCOLDS THE FANS FOR BOOING THE GOOD GUY AND CHEERING THE BAD GUY ACTUALLY COMMENDING THE CROWD FOR IGNORING A MATCH AND RUINING THE MATCH BY CHANTING ABSOLUTELY IRRELEVANT THINGS?!?!

what happened to my forum???? lol

[Big Red Machine]

WINNER FACES THE BIG SHOW: Randy Orton vs. Sheamus-
AN OLÉ CHANT! F*CK YEAH! In fact, this whole match must be seen, purely for the crowd, who pretty much ignored the match and had fun with semi-random chants… until Big Show attacked both men, resulting in a chant of “THANK YOU BIG SHOW!” I fully expect this match to become part of the Wikipedia entry for dead heat.
The odd thing here is that these aren’t guys who are particularly unpopular among smarks.
I actually feel really bad for Orton and Sheamus here because the match wasn’t bad by any means. Live reports say that WWE got the fans back after this, though, by playing Austin’s music just to f*ck with the fans.

HOW LONG HAVE I BEEN GONE?! IS THE GUY WHO USUALLY SCOLDS THE FANS FOR BOOING THE GOOD GUY AND CHEERING THE BAD GUY ACTUALLY COMMENDING THE CROWD FOR IGNORING A MATCH AND RUINING THE MATCH BY CHANTING ABSOLUTELY IRRELEVANT THINGS?!?!

what happened to my forum???? lol

I think the difference is that this wound up being entertaining on its own. Much more than random "YES!" chants.
Also, booing a babyface is only really an issue when you are cheering a heel at the expense of the babyface. Here they were dumping on two babyface.

[badnewzxl]

I was a little annoyed by the constant chanting; it was almost obnoxious bc I thought the show was pretty damn good. Esp considering Sheamus and Orton are as solid as ANY main event level talent that's come up in the WWE in a LOOOOONG time; Batista, Khali, Koslov, the Miz, etc have never even been consistent workers. As soon as either Sheamus or Orton turns heel, those same fans'll hang on that wrestler's nuts HARD; I don't see how people can ignore how good these two are.

Am I just being biased bc I like the two of them?

[Big Red Machine]

I was a little annoyed by the constant chanting; it was almost obnoxious bc I thought the show was pretty damn good. Esp considering Sheamus and Orton are as solid as ANY main event level talent that's come up in the WWE in a LOOOOONG time; Batista, Khali, Koslov, the Miz, etc have never even been consistent workers. As soon as either Sheamus or Orton turns heel, those same fans'll hang on that wrestler's nuts HARD; I don't see how people can ignore how good these two are.

Am I just being biased bc I like the two of them?

No. You're not being biased. I think I am a bit off from the way I normally feel here, possibly because of how annoyed I was that they kept pretending that they were in New York. Yeah, they always said "New York and New Jersey" but most of the clips they showed guys hanging out and all of the set represented New York, not NJ.

[Bob-O]

WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: The Miz(c) vs. Wade Barrett- 5.75/10
This was much better than their match last night… but I’m not really sure what the purpose of switching the belt was just to switch them back?

I was also confused by this. It's not like it was done to give Miz a "moment" like they did with Big Show for the IC Belt last year. Maybe a peace offering to Miz for leaving him off the show?

Hopefully this was done to kind of "reset" Barrett's title reign, as they appeared to have something bigger planned for him and really dropped the ball by cancelling the Intercontinental Cup.

[cero2k]

How can you give this a dud when the match went less than a minute, and wasn't even supposed to be a match in the first place? And another thing is, how can you say "How does WWE think this guy will get over?" NOBODY looks at the product with that logic. They don't say "well how many matches does he have to impressively win before I can like him?" His gimmick is INSANELY entertaining and he is obviously already extremely over. This is what I always hated about ROH, because Gabe always thought that way and it hurt the product (I don't watch it anymore so I can't comment on the product now). You're forgetting the entertainment part completely.

You're right about it not being fair to call the match a dud, but I think that the segment was a dud.
I don't find Fandango to be entertaining at all. If you mispronounce his name he storms off like a five year old and if you don't he dances. So what? If I wanted dancing, I wouldn't be watching wrestling.
I really don't think he is that over. This was a crazy crowd. We'll see next week.
I see what you're saying about him not needing to be a serious competitor, and I don't think I would be anywhere near as harsh on him if they hadn't put him in a match at Wrestlemania against Chris Jericho- especially at the expense of leaving guys like Claudio, Ryder, Evan Bourne, McIntyre, Kofi, Ron Killings, and Justin Gabriel who are all much more talented and mostly all much more over who would have done much better in this spot.

it only takes one smart crowd to make something as small as humming a song into the next 'thing'. look at the YES chant that was born out of an indy show and it technically made Daniel Bryan's career in the WWE. People will start doing it more because it's the fun thing to do, especially since WWE actually made reference already to it on their website, twitter, etc. If not the fans, WWE will use this to get Fandango over as fuck. Then it will likely die and we'll see what happens to fandango.

and i don't think you're necessarily seeing the story as it is. This is not about someone mispronouncing his name, but about Jericho straight up making fun of him in his face. The name thing was just like Sandow's you're not smart enough for me, here is about the name.

[Big Red Machine]

How can you give this a dud when the match went less than a minute, and wasn't even supposed to be a match in the first place? And another thing is, how can you say "How does WWE think this guy will get over?" NOBODY looks at the product with that logic. They don't say "well how many matches does he have to impressively win before I can like him?" His gimmick is INSANELY entertaining and he is obviously already extremely over. This is what I always hated about ROH, because Gabe always thought that way and it hurt the product (I don't watch it anymore so I can't comment on the product now). You're forgetting the entertainment part completely.

You're right about it not being fair to call the match a dud, but I think that the segment was a dud.
I don't find Fandango to be entertaining at all. If you mispronounce his name he storms off like a five year old and if you don't he dances. So what? If I wanted dancing, I wouldn't be watching wrestling.
I really don't think he is that over. This was a crazy crowd. We'll see next week.
I see what you're saying about him not needing to be a serious competitor, and I don't think I would be anywhere near as harsh on him if they hadn't put him in a match at Wrestlemania against Chris Jericho- especially at the expense of leaving guys like Claudio, Ryder, Evan Bourne, McIntyre, Kofi, Ron Killings, and Justin Gabriel who are all much more talented and mostly all much more over who would have done much better in this spot.

it only takes one smart crowd to make something as small as humming a song into the next 'thing'. look at the YES chant that was born out of an indy show and it technically made Daniel Bryan's career in the WWE. People will start doing it more because it's the fun thing to do, especially since WWE actually made reference already to it on their website, twitter, etc. If not the fans, WWE will use this to get Fandango over as f**k. Then it will likely die and we'll see what happens to fandango.

and i don't think you're necessarily seeing the story as it is. This is not about someone mispronouncing his name, but about Jericho straight up making fun of him in his face. The name thing was just like Sandow's you're not smart enough for me, here is about the name.

Yes, except that:
1) Sandow's character was a lot more three dimensional than "I dance" so he was still doing something other than walking away from a match.
2) the way Sandow did it made it come off as if he was insulting the babyface by saying "you're not smart enough to wrestle me." With Fandango, he is storming off like a whiny child because his name was mispronounced.
3) they had previously established that Fandango would walk away from matches if his name wasn't pronounced right via his pre-Jericho non-matches.

[yourcrapsweak]

You're soooooooo overthinking it.

[Big Red Machine]

You're soooooooo overthinking it.

How can you call that over-thinking?

The purpose of the show is:
1) to entertain the audience
2) the create a desire for the audience to buy the next PPV, whether it is to see a desired outcome (someone winning a title, a babyface getting revenge on a heel, etc) or to see exciting matches.

Therefore, if I don't find Fandango entertaining and the way he is booked doesn't accomplish #2, then it is only natural to wonder why the hell he is on the show and being booked the way he is in the first place.

[Big Red Machine]

Over-thinking it would be coming up with a reason why Johnny Curtis now has a completely different personality and is running around calling himself Fandango.

[Bob-O]

I remember when his gimmick was acting out figures of speech. Anyone remember when he couldn't "cut the mustard"? Hahahaharoflhahahahalol

[Big Red Machine]

I remember when his gimmick was acting out figures of speech. Anyone remember when he couldn't "cut the mustard"? Hahahaharoflhahahahalol

See... now that sounds entertaining.